Thursday, April 21, 2011

Show Me Your Teeth

I would like to make a film that was only two hours of looking at different people's mouths. The mouth is prepared for war. In so many ways. Not just in that Francis Bacon painting, primate warfare way. Even immunologically, your mouth is prepared for war. It fights AIDS and everything else off. But those teeth. In profile. When you are screaming. Or biting. Why do I think of Christian Bale's mouth first? Because he has such a frightening primate dentition. Or knows how to present it that way. I like mouths. I wouldn't want to be a dentist though. But to film like 200 random people...their mouths. That would be fun.

Speaking of Scandinaviana, I should have said Bjork's mouth is the first mouth to come to my mind.

Because her videos are pretty oro-exhibitionistic.

"Army of Me" is all about the mouth (video and song both).

And that song with the refrain "doesn't scare me at all"....has Bjork putting her face under the surface of the Amazon and scaring away a school of pirhanas with her larger fangs lol.

Pagan Poetry video also gets bigtime into mouth pearl play.

Laurie Anderson would make her mouth glow with that device, and was it Leigh Bowery who first crafted a suit that was all blacked out body leotard with only mouth showing?

Or does this go way back to some dadaist or surrealist?

Probably inspired by an Australian aboriginal drawing or Neolithic Altamira/Lascaux thingie anyway.

But a book on the imagery of the mouth through fashion/plastic arts/music/technology etc. could be interesting.

I think if I had to pick which 20th century artist had the greatest visual INFLUENCE on OTHER artists/arts...I'd have to go with Francis Bacon.

While Picasso was much more massive in their shared lifetimes, you don't see Picasso's influence barely anywhere, but you can see Francis Bacon's darker vision everywhere...from comics books to movies to pop rock.

Youse

Every Breath You Take (Someone Creepy is Logging It)

About Me

William Keckler. Poet. Blawger. Photographer/visual artist. You can see my work here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/williamkeckler/ I also post much of my own work on my Tumblr: www.thevisualvirgin.tumblr.com/.
I wish I could say humans move me closer to God, but usually it's the Cocteau Twins. If you're harming others or yourself physically, mentally or spiritually, today is a great day to stop.
Recent mag publications of photography and visual art (with links) are here:http://www.flickr.com/people/williamkeckler/
My books include Sanskrit of the Body, which won in the National Poetry Series, and Recombinant Image Day (which is available as a free PDF download at Broken Boulder Press).